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QUOTATIONS 

FROM 

MEGR© AUTHORS 







ARRANGED BY 




KATHERINE D. TILLMAN 












COPYRIGHTED 1921 






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amS. KATHESTNE D. TILLMAN 



QUOTATIONS FROM NEGRO 
AUTHORS 



"We men who gather up the fragments of 
our labors, acts, achievements, sayings, oddi- 
ties, peculiarities, fun, speeches, lectures, 
poems, war struggles, bravery, degradation 
and sufferings, and preserve them for the 
future now while they are in reach will stand 
out as heroes in the days to come." 

— Bishop Henry M. Turner. 

"But one, amid the strife, collected, calm, 

Patient and resolute stood firm and trod 
The deck defiant of the storm, 

Guiding the ship's course like some ancient 
god. 
And high upon the scroll of endless fame. 
In diamond letters, flashes Lincoln's name. 

T. Thomas Furtune. 

"In Memory's chain of golden links, 

One link of thine I claim 
On Friendship's page in letters clear, 

Will e'er appear thy name." 

— ^Virgie Whitsett 

"The dead, the living, — all a glorious host, 
A cloud of witnesses around us press; 

Shall we like them stand faithful at our post, 
Or weakly yield unequal to the stress?" 

— Charlotte F. Grimke. 



"Life is a fighting game against the powers 
of sin." — George M. Tiliman. 

"It is all very well to say that every one 
will live till his time comes. You need to re- 
member that your time is like India rubber; 
you can stretch it or shorten it by the amount 
of pull you put upon it." — H. T. Kealing. 

"Morning hours are the wings of the day, 
and wings are suggestive of elasticity, buoy- 
ancy, hopefulness, ambition, aspiration." 

Julian C. Caldwell. 

"We must war eternally with ignorance, 
mankind's ceaseless foe." — W. T. Vernon. 

"There is no lesson that Negro boys and 
girls so need to master as that of the neces- 
sity of work, of the hell of idleness. Work in 
the face of obstacles and adversity is the 
school that makes men, women and angels." 

W. E. B. Dubois. 

"You will never convince anyone of the 
essential equality of the races except by the 
pn-ictical argument of achievement." — Charles 
W. Chesnutt, 

"When I f m gone above me rai.se, 

No lofty stone perfect in human handicraft 
Say this of me and I shall be content, 



That in the Master's work my life was spent 
Say not that I was either great or good, 
But Mary-like she has done what she could." 

— Josephine D. Heard 

"Can x^.fric's rnuse forgetful prove, 
Or can such friendship fail to move 

A tender human heart. 
Immortal friendship laurel-crowned 
The smilirlg graces all surround 
With heavenly art." — Phyllis Wheatley. 

"A v>^oman must labor to be dressed with 
purity, crowned with wisdom, and adorned 
with the jewels of patience and persever- 
ance."— M. F. Pitts. 

"The man who is strong to fight his fight 

And whose will no front can daunt 
If the Truth be truth and the right be right 

Is the man the ages want. 
Though he fall and die in grim defeat 

Yet he has not fled the strife, 
And the house of earth will seem more sweet 

For the perfume of his life." — Paul Lau- 
rence Dunbar. 

"Upon the nation's blackboard before their 
united intelligence Africa and Africans shall 
yet rewrite their own history and the world 
shall yet recognize them as brethren." 

— William Sampson Brooks. 



"The black man must write for the black 
men and give them proper or mental rank 
among the historic peoples of the earth." 

Charles Henry Parrish 

"He had no great accumulations, but left 

posterity a rich heritage of melody." — Hallie 

Q. Brown. 

"Our boys and girls must stand, . 

xA.s giants in the land 

With torches high, 
Come, rouse from sluggard sleep. 
And help the vigil keep; 
What tho' the clouds hang low 

There's blue beyond. — Eva Carter Buckner 

"The Negro is neither angelic nor diabolical 
but merely human and should be treated as 
such. — Kelly Miller. 

"One can only guide genius or talent where 
it exists to surmount difficulties and how to 
work to the best advantage." — Samuel Coler- 

"And we with sable faces pent 

Move with the Vanguard line 
Shod with a faith that Springtime keeps, 

And all the stars enshrine." 

— Georgia D. Johnson. 



"Disease and death draw no color line." 

— George Haynes. 

"The liberators of humanity, Jesus, Paul, 
Tindaie, Luther, Wesley, Allen, Garrison and 
Lincoln were all men of splendid and indis- 
scribable loyalty to truth." — A. B. Cooper. 
"To realize the best for yourself consecrate 
yourself to something outside of yourself." 

— R. R. Wright, Jr. 

"Hail land of the Palmetto and the Pine, 
From Blue Ridge Mountain down to Mexic's 
sea; 
Sweet with magnolia and cape jessamine, 
And thrilled with song-thou art the land 
for me."— Albery A. Whitman. 

Be strong my son, the weakling never can 
secure the thing for which he strives, for he 
who rests, and there supinely waits for some 
chance guerdon of reward but waits in vain. 
Be strong! Be strong!— B. B. Church. 

Symbolic mother, we thy myriad sons 

Pounding our stubborn hearts on Freedom's 
bars, 

Clutching our birthright, fight with faces set, 
Visioning the stars.— Jessie Fauset. 

"Your race is calling you to carry on its 
good name and with that, the voice of hu- 



8 _____„____ 

inanity is calling to us all." — Allice D. Nelson 

Clean life, serene life, 

Life that knows no shame, 
Life that's writ in service 

On the scroll of fame. — Joseph S. Cotter. 

I ask no rich reward, I only crave 
A spirit singing to the lashing rain, 

A lifted heart that never knows defeat, 
God help me to be strong: God make me 
brave. — ^Anna M. Henderson. 

We shall prosper in proportion as we learn 
to dignify and glorify common labor and put 
brains and skill into the common occupations 
of life." — Booker T. Washington. 

"The women of a race should be its pride. 
We glory in the strength our mothers had, 

We glory that this strength was not denied 
To labor nobly, bravely and be glad. — Paul 

Lauence Dunbar. 

All I ask for the Negro is fair play. Give 
him this and I have no fear for his future." 

— Frederick Douglass. 

"A race like an individual, lifts itself by 
lifting others up." — ^Booker T. Washington. 

"The distance of years lends not only en- 
chantment but sobriety to the view." 

— William Pickens. 



"The price of liberty cannot come too high 
nor its safeguards be maintained with a cour- 
age and vigilance too sleepless and unyield- 
ing." — Reverdy C. Ransom. 

'In every walk of life prove yourself a 
hundred per cent patriotic and useful." 

Bishop Henry Blanton Parks. 

Truth has never been the exclusive inher- 
itance of any one nation." — R. R. Downs. 

"We can reach our highest attainment, ony 
in so far as we stoop to reach the man beneath 
us." — Emily Christmas Kinch. 

"The work of the colored woman's Club is 
to teach the race the lesson of self-control 
revolutionizing communities and bringing 
about their moral and civic salvation." 

Mrs. Booker T. Washington 

"You will never come into j^our own until 
you put at the service of the Almighty all of 
your powers-mind, body and soul. You will 
never know what happiness is until you have 
a large share in making others happy." 

Nannie H. Burroughs. 

"We realize that to day is the psychological 
moment for us as women to show our true 
worth, and prove that the Negro woman of 



10 

to-day measures up to those strong sainted 
women of our race who passed through the 
fire of slavery and its galling remembrances. 

—Mary B. Talbert. 

"We must have trained guardians for the 
home whether they be natural mothers or 
selected ones." — Mrs. S. Joe Brown. 

"A landless race is like a ship without a 
rudder." — Booker T. Washington. 

"I have learned that success is to be measured 
not so much by the position one has reached 
in Life, as by the obstacles which he has over- 
come while trying to succeed." 

"We trace the power of Death from tomb to 

tomb, 
And his are all the ages yet to come." 

—Phyllis Wheately. 

"Still wondrous youth each noble path pursue 
On deathless glories fix thine ardent view." 

—Phyllis Wheately. 

In Flanders fields where poppies blow, 

Beneath the crosses row on row, 
We blacks an endless vigil keep, 

Yea we though dead can never sleep. 

Ingratitude has made it so. 
"Africa, long ages sleeping, 

Oh my Motherland awake, 



11 

In the East the clouds glow crimson, 
With the new dawn that is breaking, 
And its golden glory fills tthe western skies. 

—Claude McKay 

"Since Poets have told of sunsets 

What is left for me to tell? 
Can only say that I saw the day press 

Crimson lips to horizon gray. — Effie Lee. 

Sky, seas, and mountains wonders are 

And chartless winds or fierce or mild, 
But still I think God's masterpiece, 

Is just a little child. — Ethel Caution. 




12 



QUOTATIOxNS FROM KATHEEINE D. 

TiLLMAN. 

"Foi Oh how much of happiness, 

A humble hut can hold, 
Such joys as misers cannot buy, 

With all their hoarded gold." 

"Say not that you have no chance, 

Read the Negro's thrilling past, 
Sse what he has done and dared, 

Then go on to conquest vast." 

"We call our visions madness, 

And cast our ideals away, 
And are ever less than we should be, 

Had we had our visions stay." 

"John Brown was hanged for Freedom's cause 

By man-made freedom-hating laws, 
But he had won his God's applause. 

And where his martyr's blood was spilled, 
The seed of freedom were instilled 

And men with new-born courage filled." 

"On through the long night of oppression - 

and wrong, | 

On with a smile and on with a song, | 

Where darkness is deepest then follows the | 

dawn; | 

Then soul of my soul go upward and on. ': 



"So rich so pure her jeweled womanhood 
So consecrated to her fellow's good 



13 

That on and on, 
Shall shine her life in other happier spheres, 

Undimmed for'er by mortal ills and tears 
Through years unborn." 

"Ring out the Bells of gladsome Easter time, 

In celebration of event divine, 
With resurrection joys the music swells, 

While multitudes now seek the Saviour's 
shrine." 

In workman's shop or at the "Front" 

The Negro soldier does his stunt 
Proving a patriot,. loyal, true 

To his country's flag "red, v/hite and bliv3." 

"For do you not think, it may be the homes 
v/e build for eternity, 
Are built oi' the kindness, cheer and love. 
Our lives send on to the heav'n above? 

"I serve my Lord the King, 

No greater post I ask, 
No matter where for Him I serve, 

So honor crown thte task." 

"Give if you like wreaths for the dead but 

Long as I on earth shall tread, 
And grief the human heart shall bow, 

I'd rather give my flov/ers now." 

"Our times are in God's hands, 

Our lives are in His care, 
The Old Year served from Him, 



14 

Our heaven allotted share, 
And after all we had more sunshine than of 
shade. 

So welcome the New Year with hearts 
with courage lade." 

"Within the church that happy Christmas day 
Where holly berries on the chancel lay 

The little children carolled forth the praise 
Of Christ the Prince of Peace, Ancient of 
Days." 




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